1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of flocking a garment and in particular to a compact, portable, self-contained unit providing improved flocking.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the art of flocking, it is known to provide an adhesive coating of a predetermined design to a substrate such as a garment, textile, card, etc. such as by screen printing, to cover the adhesive with flock, and then to heat the substrate to cure the adhesive. The flock, of course, will adhere only to the adhesive coated portion of the substrate and after all excess flock is removed and the adhesive cured, the desired design on the garment will be "flocked" or fuzzy in both appearance and texture. The term "flock" as known in the prior art refers usually to a very short, natural or synthetic fiber such as may be used in coating greeting cards, garments or the like, such as fibers of rayon, nylon, polyester and pulp. It is known to apply flocking material to an adhesive coated surface in a variety of ways including manually depositing fibers over the entire surface and shaking off the excess, and more recently by the use of electrostatic devices which provide the advantage that the fibers are driven into the surface substantially on end with each fiber standing up. This gives a deeper penetration into the adhesive and a more textured and more uniform coating. It is well-known in the prior art to apply flocking to garments such as T-shirts, sweat shirts and the like, however, the overall operation requires a large amount of operator time and hand work. In prior art "up-flockers"flock moves from the flocking tray to a substrate in a funnel type motion from the center out to the edges. In such prior art, the cabinets are usually metal.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or minimize the disadvantages in the prior art, and in particular to insure the highest density of flock lay-down in a perpendicular uniform manner.
It is another object of the invention to ground all metal (except the high voltage electrode), including the screen holding mechanism, to prevent adhesive or ink splatters on garments due to undesired stray electrostatic fields.
It is a further object of the invention to use an electric circuit whereby when the turret is manually rotated by the operator, a microswitch is closed initiating the flocking cycle but automatically delaying the energization of the high voltage electrode in the flock tray until a predetermined period of time has gone by which will allow the flock tray to move upwardly into contact with the garment holding platen.